Excessive perspiration is a response of sweat glands to thermal or emotional stimuli. As sweating may bring about a discomforting or embarrassing experience during occupational, sporting, or other social events, various treatments have been employed, including surgical removal of sweat glands or local administration of drugs affecting the nerve signals. The most common means include topically applying antiperspirants, mostly aluminum and zirconium salts, believed to obstruct the sweat gland ducts.
Localized control of sweating by topical means has long been a cosmetic goal, and although commercial antiperspirants were available already a hundred years ago, new challenges arise as more people exhibit irritation or allergic reactions, and as still stricter regulations are introduced into cosmetic practice, necessitating lower doses of active agents, allowing for lower antiperspirant effectiveness. Furthermore, some antiperspirant means may form stains on the clothes or on the skin. Various sites of the body may be affected by excessive sweating, sometimes called hyperhidrosis, but the most visible, and often the most undesirable, is the sweat formation on the lips, nose, forehead, face, scalp, and neck, which is called gustatory hyperhidrosis when associated with eating. To address facial sweating is a still more challenging task, in view of the sensitivity of this body part, and also in view of its visibility. It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a facial antiperspirant.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,120,948 describes an antiperspirant stick composed of two visible phases, comprising an annular gel shell and an anhydrous antiperspirant core of aluminum salt dispersed in waxy materials, the core containing 30-60 wt % of the active agent. U.S. Pat. No. 6,007,799 describes a clear cosmetic gel, aiming at increasing amounts of cosmetically active ingredients, comprising aluminum antiperspirant of up to 35 wt %. U.S. Pat. No. 6,110,473 describes a w/o/w emulsion with the aluminum active agent constituting more than 25 wt %. U.S. Pat. No. 7,431,918 provides anhydrous vehicle with calcium sulfate hemihydrate (plaster). US 2008/0207737 describes topical therapeutic compositions comprising anti-cholinergic or anti-muscarinic antagonists. The known compositions, and associated methods, have several drawbacks; some of the methods are too invasive; some of the compositions comprise too a high amount of active agents; some of the compositions do not deliver the active agent efficiently to the skin; some of the compositions leave visible deposits; some of the compositions have too a complex structure; some of the compositions would not be pleasant or gentle on the skin, for example, for lacking a suitable lipid component or suitable hydrophilic component. None of those compositions are suitable as a facial antiperspirant.
It is therefore another object of this invention to provide a facial antiperspirant avoiding the drawbacks of the prior art.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a moisturizing facial antiperspirant comprising a lowered amount of the active agent.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a facial antiperspirant which would efficiently reduce sweating, while providing a pleasant feeling on the skin.
It is a still further object of the invention to provide a facial antiperspirant which would efficiently reduce sweating, while protecting the skin.
Other objects and advantages of present invention will appear as description proceeds.